Seriously, I am

Riding, that is.

I was so so so so happy the other night when I came home because the mountain bike doesn't have a fender, and I was mud from here to there. I felt all.. well, hard core.

The feeling was completely null and void as I took the train to work the next day because I heard there was a skim of ice on the roads. I am telling myself that a measley 40 minutes of walking (all tolled) is better than driving.

In other news... I seem to have lost my signature arts dpns, which were last seen in a bag with 1.5 Hand Maiden, hand dyed, hand knitted socks. For charity, no less. I know they were in my bike pack, and after that, I have no idea. They'll show up, I'm quite sure.

The Miralda is in time out because I don't have the nerve to frog her yet. I might ask Aunty Tink to do that, because she's good that way. The last time I asked her to help me with lace she resorted to drink, and the shawl actually whupped her. The first one ever, if I remember correctly.

I don't know how I have the nerve (because I have about 10 things on needles that I can name off the top of my head), but I cast on a cute little sweater tonight that I plan to be wearing by next Wednesday. Me and Aunty Tink think we're going to get ours done before Munchie, purely due to the size of our girls compared to her girls. I didn't get much done tonight, but I believe I will be wearing that sweater on Wednesday...

It's good to be goal oriented.

The do nothing weekend

Fail.

Instead we discovered that Banana's 13th birthday party wasn't next Saturday, it was THIS Saturday, at the very same time that BFML was scheduled to be at a hockey game with BGA, and a fund raising bingo directly afterwards. Did I mention that the Banana had invited approximately 10 girls? After a great deal of house cleaning and schedule shuffling we indeed held a birthday sleepover, serving gourmet hot dogs with home made chili, and numerous other toppings; strawberry cheesecake to follow. There were movies, there was much loudness, there was very little sleep.

Simultaneously all three dogs came down with something horrendous. Rox very nearly ended up at the emergency vet clinic, but by 5am she stabilized. Chicken broth and rice for the bunch of them today. We're reconsidering raw feeding in general. I don't believe her constitution can handle any surprises. Could it have been an extreme case of stress? That many teenage girls can be the last straw for a human, let alone a skittish dog.

Somehow, in the middle of that, I spun a good portion of the shetland that I washed, and Correna and I picked and carded. It's a nice light grey to charcoal... kind of an uneven lace weight, as the fiber was peppered with second cuts. I tell ya.. a little bit goes a long way (by the way, this isn't one of Tracy's shetlands).

I've been knitting on a little red hat that I found in Piecework. I like it, tho I suspect it's about 10 sizes too big. I'm also working on a Cowichan sweater and hat set. It's the first and the last that I'll ever knit... just not my bag. The sleeves are left to do, and.. well, 6 million ends need to be dealt with.

We did a little Christmas shopping; I'm pretty well done with Mug, Dida and Katerina. Otherwise I'm making progress.

The dogs are fighting... that's a good sign.

Think the back roads and pathways are clear enough for a bike ride tomorrow? We'll see.

Geoache link

Here's a video that explains a little about geocaching. It's a really great way to spend some time outdoors, and I love the treasure hunting aspect (tho, I rarely keep anything.. I just like the hunt). The kids are over it right now, but BFML and I are not. We are team 6Rabitts.



Some photos I had previously promised:








Strangest thing, this. We were caching, and I told BFML that I thought the cache might be close to a house I did a LOT LOT LOT of work in when I was still doing floors. It was one of those jobs that you just don't forget.. house is closing in on mansion status, lady was nasty, I was accidentally locked out of the house with no jacket, no keys, and it's.. hmmm.. about 40 below zero at the time... and finally, it is the very last place in the world where I still experienced feeling in the tip of my left index finger. It was on that job that I smashed the finger and wrecked it forever. It was just weird to be there, by that bad memory house.. I was remembering everything and I looked up; there, hanging from barbed wire - surrounding a municipal waterworks gadget - was a rubber fishing lure. Just the weirdest thing, overall.



Just in case you think I don't knit any longer, here is the Girasole I'm working on. It's in a light worsted alpaca, and I think it's gonna be gorgeous. It's sitting on the dashboard of the truck while we were out geocaching.



Crazy, huh? We found piles and piles and piles of hail in the grass by a weigh station near Calgary. You don't expect to hold ice in your hand in August, that's for sure; unless it came out of your beer cooler perhaps... but in the grass?

And finally,



A gratuitous puppy photo, and one beautiful eye (if you don't mind me taking credit for one of my loveliest creations).

What I've really wanted

...for what seems like forever, is some time to myself to create. I have been too this, and too that, and haven't had the opportunity to just sit at the wheel and spin. Everything has had a deadline of some sort, and finally I ended up with a deadline that helped me achieve some time at the wheel.

You see, Donna loaned me her Majacraft Rose to spin over Christmas. After everything was said and done, and all things Christmas were achieved, I found two solid days to sit at the wheel before it goes back to its rightful owner. I spent a good deal of time doing research on the wheel, making adjustments, talking to Mandie (she's a distributor) and generally searching for the holy grail. It was so great. I really, really love spinning.

But you knew that, right?

Thank you so much Donna!

My next goal is to dye. I have the weekend ahead of me, and I feel as thought the window of opportunity might just open.

Tomorrow? I'll be at the Knitting Room for several hours, and after that, Alphagetti with Kathi. I'm so looking forward to both things.

Holy crap, I *might* know how to crochet

I cannot promise, but it appears that I am reading a crochet chart, and the darned thing makes some kind of sense. It is going to be crazy cool... cobweb weight silk-mohair on a really, really large hook. I had to leave it at work tonight because I am so excited that I would put it ahead of all other projects, and I have some important stuff that needs doing. On a timeline...

I cannot be trusted to be true to projects. New is good. Face it. Remember Fugly Mo? Still in the bag it was in last year, and not one more stitch has been knitted. Because it's OLD.

I have all kinds of top secret things going on, none of which I can talk about. But look out! After Christmas, there will be some great pictures...

including the hairy citrine thing, and the fuzzy stained glass-like things, about 2 million mittens and hopefully a Alice Starmore wonderment.

I'm so excited about this possibility, I'm going to make a new label.. called: Crochet (with one t). Who knew?

I fiercely need this:

.. with the endless desperation that can only be matched by how I felt about this, last week:




I sometimes feel this way about impossibly slim addi turbo lace needles, in size 000; and in all honesty the chances of either of them being well used is about the same. 000.

Ok.. socks.

My plans for last night abruptly changed. Up until 4:58pm I thought I was going to Aunty Tink's with Michellie for the sock exchange. Turns out there was a bad truck/trailer accident on the Deerfoot, and Dida couldn't get Mug back to the shop in time (its convoluted, I know). Plan B: I go back to the house, and when Dida gets there, I'll go to Aunty Tink's.... or.. I'll stay here for an hour and wait for Ike to get off off work, and then go.

Well, things went from bad to worse, involving a cat, a mouse, two dogs and a teenager. There was screaming. There was jumping on furniture. There were two dogs trying to get one cat who was trying to hang on to one mouse, desperately attempting to remain alive. There finally came a point that I just thought.... you know... now might be an excellent time to lay down.

The good news is that Amy got the socks I knit. If you have read comments, you will know that she really wanted them... and that makes me happier than words can say. I hope she will take a picture, because I forgot to. I don't know yet which socks I got, but I'm guessing they are pink (wrong! green!).

I'm going to spin today... Qiviut.

If you've made it this far, here's a Super-Algebraic Sock Pattern for you.

Shhhhhh

I have to be quiet; can't let the sock hear me.. but all seems to be well. In fact, I was knitting away on it tonight and realized that I was past where I had started to frog. So, only 2 more repeats to go, and the toe, then the very bad sock will be complete.. After the socks go to their rightful owner, I'll post a picture or two, because they are some niiiiiiice socks (STR - Jade, Lightweight, fyi).

It's 2am, and here I am, awake. I'm so darned tired that I can't sleep. Ever been there? Mug starts school again tomorrow, so the alarm is back on after an entire summer off.

It's officially knitting season, if you ask me. Shouldn't someone ring a bell or something?

I'm not done talking

But I'm getting there. There will be knitting discussed, so there's some progress.



There's a story about wings and about stars. Many of you know about these things, and have experienced it yourselves. It's all pretty simple, really.

When HC died, I started finding stars. Everywhere. I didn't attract stars before, but I am now a star magnet. Each time they come (sometimes a single, sometimes dozens) I smile, because I consider it a gift from him. We touch base. Some of my friends actually bought a real star in his name.. I have a certificate right here at my desk, and it is one of the most precious things that I have... and then wings. I choose to believe this, and you may very well think I'm a crazy person, but he comes to me and to many, many others in the form of a bird, a butterfly, or occasionally a dragonfly (though not as often). In the first days after he died I flat out demanded a sign, and two huge white butterflies came to where I was sitting, and fluttered around and around.. one closer than the other. The day before that, a dove landed on my top stair and stood there as I approached and even opened the door. I knew.

Three weeks later it was my birthday, and I wasn't even sure how to put one foot in front of the other at that point, but asked Dida to take me to a stained glass store. I didn't know why. There, in a box of glass shards I found a perfect angel wing. My birthday present.

Many of my island friends who love HC and went through this whole thing with us have butterfly or bird stories.. perhaps they will share some in comments. There are dozens of stories.

Today, wings and stars.

A lady gave Mug a bracelet... blue stars joined together. I found a vintage dragonfly pin. As Gigi quietly sat with Lara, a butterfly came and landed by a star that she has hanging in a window.

Nikki sent me a picture of balloons... covered in stars. Jennifer sent a photo that she took of one of the approximately 75 butterflies that surrounded her a few days ago.

It's like that. And I'm glad.

Alright.. knitting. I've been knitting on and off in the last few days. Not too much lace, but tonight I have been working on the socks I've been designing. I'd like to show you a picture (because they kick some butt), but they are for a sock exchange, so I can't do it. I did finish my Ravelympics project, so I expect to get my 'medal' tomorrow.. Michelle gave me a skein of sari silk for an early birthday present, so I have been knitting and re-knitting projects with that.. it's back into a ball right now because I haven't got it just right. And.. I'm about to finish sock one of version 2.0 of BFML's Christmas socks.



So there you go. Knitting. And stars. And wings. And a lot, lot, lot of love.

Sheep wrecked blog harlot

(I believe this is a fair representation of the moments before a sheep wreck - though I'm not sure which of the two riders is the harlot)


or, if you prefer:

mandie fibre dye australie (hmmm.. think someone was looking for mandie? you'll find her out there in the australie outback)

These are two successful ways to search in Google, and find my blog.

Ravelympics related; I'm almost done the first sleeve, so I'm about to come around the last corner with this sweater. Then I need to cast on socks.. better yet, socks with a deadline. I'm going to knit them in STR, and I'm kind of excited about them.

I'm really tired. So this is short, sweet, and I'm going for the humour factor. We'll see what tomorrow brings.